Against the backdrop of a crumbling imperial system of war and globalization, the British continue to scream bloody murder about the “affront” to the good name of the GCHQ (Britain’s communications spy center) spy apparatus, which really has to do with their desperation that the United States is slipping from their grasp under President Trump.

GCHQ has a new boss, current deputy director-general of MI5 Jeremy Fleming, who is expected to hop across the Atlantic as soon as possible to “seek assurances from our partners” that all is well, the London Times reported Sunday. His biggest challenge, the Times adds, will be maintaining GCHQ’s “close working relationship with U.S. intelligence agencies.”

Hysteria? An “informed source” quoted by the Times rants, “I don’t think the rubbish being uttered by the Trump camp will affect the day-to-day operational cooperation between the UK and U.S. intelligence agencies, but it will be important to remind our partners that more consideration and respect need to be afforded to the intelligence communities by the Trump administration.” Tut tut.

Revealing is the screed published in The Guardian yesterday by Sir Peter Westmacott, who served as British ambassador in Washington from 2012-2016, and who, in his admiration for Obama—he defends him from any involvement in spying against Trump—liked to say that the U.S. and the UK were “joined at the hip” and always “on the same page.” While arguing that the claims of GCHQ spying on Trump were “absurd,” Westmacott admitted that the context for the charges “was unsettling” and that London “was understandably keen to kill off any suggestion, however nonsensical, that British intelligence agencies had been acting against the new President’s interests.”

Westmacott was incensed that Trump failed to seriously answer the question posed to him at his March 17 press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the allegations against GCHQ, (saying instead that he and Merkel shared the experience of being spied on), and that White House press secretary Sean Spicer had denied that any apology to Britain had been made. British press continue to lie that U.S. officials “were forced to make a formal apology” for defaming GCHQ. In their dreams.

The intelligence relationship between Britain and America is “unique and precious,” Westmacott affirms. “Gratuitously damaging it by peddling falsehoods and then doing nothing to set the record straight would be a gift to our enemies they could only dream of.”